From radio experiments and MS-DOS to Microsoft cloud security

My interest in technology began with electronics and simple radio communication experiments. Before there were servers to administer, there was the satisfaction of making something work and understanding why it stopped working.

That curiosity carried into a SIVA PC running MS-DOS 4. WordStar and Lotus 1-2-3 were part of learning what a computer could do. Building and upgrading x86 computers, then working with Windows 3.1 and Windows 95, made the relationship between hardware and software tangible. A machine was something I could open, change and investigate.

Learning through useful work

Supporting CSI schools around Madurai brought people into that picture. Repairing or upgrading a computer has a purpose beyond the machine itself: someone needs to use it. That remains a useful starting point for an architecture discussion today.

At Lunar Systems, which I ran, I also developed a FoxBASE accounting application called LISA. Hardware support and application development were different kinds of work, but both required attention to how a person would actually use the result.

I completed my Windows 2000 MCSE in 2001. That is a milestone in my certification history, rather than the beginning of my technical experience. Windows NT and Exchange 5.5 were already part of my progression into Microsoft infrastructure.

From individual machines to connected systems

The scope grew through Windows Server, Active Directory and successive Exchange Server generations. Small Business Server, proxy services and wireless connectivity for remote offices were also part of that progression.

I worked with identity integration through MIIS, estate management through SMS and monitoring through MOM. Later came virtualisation, failover clustering, Storage Spaces Direct and hybrid infrastructure. Each layer added another reason to ask what depended on the component being changed.

My experience includes Azure Stack HCI, now called Azure Local, and Azure Stack Hub. I keep the historical name when describing work done before the rename: calling earlier work “Azure Local” would blur the chronology. Microsoft documents the naming change as effective from 19 November 2024. Microsoft’s naming guidance.

Working across countries and roles

My professional experience spans India, the United Arab Emirates, Ireland and Qatar. The roles below are the factual outline; they are not permission to discuss internal projects.

Period	Organisation and role	Location
1996–2002	Lunar Systems — Computer Engineer	Madurai, India
2002–2005	Communication Information Systems — Systems Administrator	Coimbatore, India
2005–2007	Total Computing Solutions — Technical Engineer	Dubai, UAE
2008–2012	ArcelorMittal — System Specialist	Dubai, UAE
2012–2020	Qatar Investment Authority — Senior Systems Engineer	Doha, Qatar
2020–2021	Dell Technologies — Senior Engineer, Technical Support	Dublin, Ireland
2021–2024	Microsoft — Cloud Solution Architect, Security	Dublin, Ireland
Since August 2024	QatarEnergy — Senior Systems Engineer	Doha, Qatar

My ArcelorMittal experience included large-scale enterprise messaging. I do not publish environment sizes or internal details.

Identity and security widen the responsibility

My work now spans Azure and Microsoft 365, Exchange hybrid and Exchange Online, Microsoft Entra ID, Conditional Access, Privileged Identity Management, Microsoft Defender, Microsoft Sentinel and Microsoft Purview. PowerShell and Microsoft Graph are part of the administration and automation side of that work.

I describe my professional focus as Microsoft Cloud, Infrastructure, Identity & Security Architect. I hold CISSP and am a Microsoft Certified Trainer, current for 2026. My current employment role is Senior Systems Engineer at QatarEnergy in Doha; my professional positioning describes the wider scope of my experience.

For me, Zero Trust belongs in conversations about who can administer a platform, how access is granted and how a failure or compromise is investigated. Those questions connect directly to the infrastructure underneath.

What I want to share

This site is where I will turn that experience into practical articles, reproducible labs and original public training. I want a reader to understand the reasoning, the prerequisites and the point at which a recommendation stops applying.

The AZ-900, AZ-104 and SC-200 recordings came from private classes and will remain private. New public sessions will use original material. They will not reproduce Microsoft Official Courseware or expose participants.

I still value the habit that began with electronics: look closely, establish what is happening and make one explainable change at a time. That is the thread I want the material here to follow.

Publication note

The career history and current professional details in this article were supplied by me for this publication on 19 September 2026. This is a personal account, not a technical deployment guide; no product test is claimed. See About for my professional profile and Training for public session announcements.